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Editor's picks

CMA to reveal initial view on Ofgem appeals next week
The Competition & Markets Authority (CMA) will publish a summary of its responses to the eight appeals against the RIIO2 price controls for gas and transmission networks next week. The appeals centre around the cost of capital and the outperformance wedge.
News
Institutional energy reforms are ‘unfinished business’
The institutional reforms to the energy industry recently proposed by the government and Ofgem represent “unfinished business,” an influential academic has argued. Catherine Mitchell, professor of energy policy at the University of Exeter, described the proposals as “tantalising” and stated: “It’s really irritating that they just have not gone that extra step.”
News
Ofwat confirms temporary price increases for retail
Ofwat has confirmed its decision to temporarily increase the maximum prices business retailers are permitted to charge as a result of increased levels of bad debt. Under the regulator's plans, where bad costs across the market exceed 2 per cent of revenue, retailers will bear 25 per cent of the costs, with the rest passed on to customers.
News

Featured

It’s all a matter of judg(e)ment
The Competition & Markets Authority (CMA) is due to deliver its preliminary judgement on the appeals against Ofgem’s RIIO2 price controls next month. In her latest column exclusively for Utility Week members, Maxine Frerk examines what we can learn from the arguments put forward so far.
Opinion
Offering a helping hand
Energy suppliers representing 90 per cent of domestic customers have signed up to fresh commitments to support those worried about paying bills this winter. Energy UK deputy chief executive Audrey Gallacher looks at what else the sector is doing to help struggling billpayers.
Opinion
Regulating for success in addressing climate change
As part of our Countdown to COP focus on the future of regulation, the National Infrastructure Commission’s Giles Stevens gives his view on why overhauling the regulatory process is essential for meeting the net-zero target.
Opinion

Latest in Regulation

SoLR tally for 2021 already exceeds previous five years
A total of 31 energy suppliers have exited the market via the supplier of last resort (SoLR) process since 2016, with more domestic customers facing SoLR so far in 2021 than the previous five years combined. Utility Week has compiled a list of all 31 failures since 2016, and the suppliers which became the SoLR.
News
Yorkshire calls for WACC to be set independently
Yorkshire Water has called for an independent body to be established to set the cost of capital for each regulated sector and a simplification of performance commitments in the PR24 price control.
News
WPD CEO: National Grid shares our vision of the future
Western Power Distribution (WPD) chief executive Phil Swift talks to Utility Week about his hopes for the ED2 price control, what a distribution system operator of the future will look like and the relationship with WPD's new owner, National Grid.
Interviews
Shell Energy appointed SoLR for Green
Shell Energy Retail has been appointed as supplier of last resort (SoLR) to the customers of recently failed supplier Green. Shell, which already serves around 900,000 customers, will take on the 255,000 domestic and a small number of business customers.
News
Avro is the acid test for SoLR
The collapse of Avro Energy, affecting 580,000 customers, presents a significant test for Ofgem’s Supplier of Last Resort mechanism. Experts tell David Blackman that it’s a "flip of a coin” as to whether the process will cope.
Opinion
Government ‘far too complacent’ over energy failures
The spate of energy supplier failures seen over recent weeks is “far from normal”, Ed Miliband has told Kwasi Kwarteng, who revealed that the bulk of customers being transferred from failing suppliers are on tariffs at or just below the price cap.
News
BEIS and Ofgem ‘should consider one-off price cap adjustment’
A one-off adjustment to the price cap or even quarterly caps should be considered by Ofgem and the government, an ex-big six boss has suggested. Former Npower chief executive Paul Massara was talking to Utility Week about the options he believes the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) and the energy regulator will be considering as part of the industry’s response to the influx of supplier failures following a spike in wholesale costs.
News
Energy UK: There is no cash down the back of the sofa
The crisis sparked by soaring gas prices has exposed “real vulnerabilities” in the UK retail market and sound suppliers are threatened with collapse, Energy UK’s chief executive has warned. Emma Pinchbeck stressed that “the retail sector makes negative margins which means that at time of price shocks they have nowhere to go”.
News
Kwarteng insists energy safety nets have yet to be fully tested
The business and energy secretary has told MPs it is premature to discuss setting up a bad bank for customers of failed energy suppliers because existing mechanisms to deal with the problem have not been fully utilised. But, pressed on reports that the government is examining the creation of a vehicle to pick up loss-making customers which surviving retailers are reluctant to take on, Kwasi Kwarteng said the government is planning for a range of contingencies.
News
Avro and Green failures leave 835k customers for SoLR
Ofgem has confirmed two more supplier failures, with the loss of Avro Energy resulting in the single biggest failure the market has ever seen. Avro served 580,000, representing a 2 per cent market share. Newcastle-based Green meanwhile, which had 255,000 customers, had a 0.9 per cent market share. The total number of failures so far this year now equals the previous record set in 2019.
News
On the Move: SSE Renewables appoints MD
In our latest appointment round-up, SSE Renewables has announced a new managing director will replace the retiring Jim Smith early next year. Elsewhere in the sector Ovo has appointed a new chief product and technology officer while Ofgem has announced the appointment of a new chair for the Electricity System Operator (ESO) Performance Panel.
News
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